Judge excoriates Trump admin for repeatedly 'refusing to comply' with discovery and court orders

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

Dec 19th, 2025, 5:51 pm


A federal court in Manhattan chided the Trump administration on Thursday for trying to dodge discovery obligations in a collection of consolidated lawsuits over terminated grant awards issued by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

In a 32-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a victory for the plaintiffs and a loss for the government. The court granted several motions to compel discovery filed by the plaintiffs in two consolidated cases and overruled a series of objections lodged by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The ruling takes the Trump administration to task for its discovery-related behavior so far and warns the government that discovery violations going forward could result in punishment.

"The Court reminds the parties that compliance with discovery obligations 'is not optional or negotiable,'" the opinion reads. "It is also well-recognized that '…a district court has wide discretion in sanctioning a party for discovery abuses.' The Court will not hesitate to impose sanctions should any party fail to comply with its discovery obligations or the Court's discovery directives."

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/not-optional-or-negotiable-judge-excoriates-trump-admin-for-repeatedly-refusing-to-comply-with-discovery-and-court-orders-in-humanities-grant-funding-lawsuit/

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Full headline: 'Not optional or negotiable': Judge excoriates Trump admin for repeatedly 'refusing to comply' with discovery and court orders in humanities grant-funding lawsuit

[Old Crank]

1. Nothing will change

Until these people are jailed.
They all need to be rounded up including the lawyers advising them.

[brer cat]

3. They all have a get-out-of-jail card

as long as trump is president. Disbarment is probably the only meaningful threat available.

[markodochartaigh]

15. And disbarment

is handled by the individual states so in a number of states it is actually a possible deterrent.

[J_William_Ryan]

2. "They all need to be rounded up..."

True – but who is going to do the rounding up, the courts have no capacity to enforce contempt citations for failing to comply with orders and injunctions.

Until Trump, respect for the Constitution and rule of law compelled compliance; Trump has nothing but contempt for the Constitution and rule of law.

[Roy Rolling]

4. Sanctions?

How about ruthless enforcement of the law? Incarcerate the decision-makers or at least an underling until defendants are in compliance with the court order.

Every time the court shows leniency these morons “give an inch, take a mile” and ignore the order completely.

Make an example—put someone in jail like they did to intimidate Bill Clinton. But failed.

Sadly, a woman spent months in jail defying a subpoena to a Congressional clown committee. 🤡

[HariSeldon]

8. This is a civil case

Likely the sanction would be something the judge can enforce: a negative inference. The jury, or the judge if it is a bench trial, will be told that they can infer from the recalcitrant party's failure to produce evidence that the evidence supports the adverse party's argument.

[Chasstev365]

5. Excoriates?

Oooohh:

They are trembling in fear!

[GreenWave]

6. Perhaps they will confuse with exocises.

[JohnnyRingo]

7. Like a toothless guard dog growling at them.

I'm afraid Trump owns the law now. It's his constitution to rewrite as he desires.
Even if the Supreme Court orders him to do something, who's going to enforce it? Bondi? Mike Johnson?

[travelingthrulife]

9. What part of "you need to put them in jail for it" is failing to reach these judges?

[mn9driver]

10. Ah, yes.

The Strongly Worded Letter, universally feared by those who enjoy the protection of the orange shitbird. Um, no, nevermind…

[twodogsbarking]

11. Deport them. To Mars.

[twodogsbarking]

12. excoriates, chided. That'll scare 'e.

[moniss]

13. At what point at long last will a judge receiving a case

involving these fascists get immediately tough on the very first instance of non-compliance? A life long history of this kind of conduct is apparently ignored and judges keep expecting that somehow there will be willing compliance from these fascists. So cases drag on and on and on while all of the "new dates for compliance" get set and once again ignored and then the appeals of appeals on every issue imaginable all while failing to produce required evidentiary materials and conducting public smear campaigns of the plaintiffs and judges etc.

The first missed obligation should draw sanctions. The second should draw contempt. The third should grant a motion for summary judgement against the fascists.

[sakabatou]

14. The only way I see it being fixed is to throw Dump's administration in jail until they comply